Below are recent letters from readers sharing their
reactions to issues which have been raised in this column. The
date and name of the column are in bold (with hyperlink to the
commentary) and the readers comments follow. Send us your comments
on a particular column and we will consider publishing them.

I returned to Ft. Campbell KY from Iraq on April 26, 2006. 4
days later I got a phone call saying my wife passed away
while staying at her mom's house.

My unit at Ft. Campbell was nice enough to let me keep
housing allowance, just changed it to a single person rate.

The end of September I just moved to Ft Bliss, TX. My
housing allowance was stopped because now I am a single E4.
I was married for 5 years and have numerous household goods
which I think would be wrong to make me put it into storage
because I haven't lived in the barracks since I was a
private.

I do live off post but am
paying out of my pocket because no one seems to want to help
me. I was told my commander could do some paperwork
but that isn't happening and I talked to our BN S-1 or
finance personnel and was told by an E6 I have to live in
the barracks / I CANNOT receive the housing allowance.

I think this is not right. I am 27 yrs old have lived on my
own or with my wife for numerous years. Why can't
these policies be changed, especially for certain
circumstances?

I
am writing this letter in Wayne, West Virginia due
to the fact my boyfriend and I are being made to
separate after a year of living together.

He
is trying to get his probation transferred from Ohio
to West Virginia. You see, Ohio will let us
live together but when they started the transfer all
of a sudden we have to separate and you see I am
disabled and I need his help to get everyday things
done.

I
don't think its fair for them to tell us we cant
live together because of a stupid law. If that's the
case, there also is a law in West Virginia that you
can beat your wife on courthouse steps on Sunday
!!!!!!!

I don't feel the state should make the choice on who
you can date and how (you live). I am not a
person who wants to get married right away. I
had a very bad relationship and marriage and it
seems very sad that your freedom to live your life
your way would be wrong.

Car
insurance recognizes it, Boeing will not, as I have penis
and she has a vagina.

Not being
practicing Christians, we refuse to be married, as we are
both agnostic.

If I was
willing to be a gay member of society, not accept marriage
as it was unlawful, I would get benefits for my partner.
But, having opposite sexual organs, we are discriminated
against, based on our refusal to accept traditional,
Christian based roles in marriage.

I am the
assistant editor at Urbanite magazine, a free monthly
magazine in and about Baltimore City. We are working
on the concept for our Family issue, which will come out in
September 2006.

We are currently focusing on trying to find out more about
current definitions of family.

I found the
materials and commentary on your site to be a very
interesting part of current discussions about what
constitutes a real family and what the concrete implications
of definitions of "family" can mean for people.

I'm
interested in the work you do, and would like to know if you
have any resources (books, articles, people) that could be
helpful to us in our research.

Thomas F. Coleman, Executive Director of Unmarried America, is an
attorney with 33 years of experience in singles' rights, family
diversity, domestic partner benefits, and marital status discrimination.
Each week he adds a new commentary to Column One: Eye on Unmarried
America. E-mail:
coleman@unmarriedamerica.org. Unmarried America is a nonprofit
information service for unmarried employees, consumers, taxpayers, and
voters.